Sennowe Hall, And Stable Court

Sennowe Hall and Stable Court

Country house built 1905–7 by Norwich architect George Skipper for Thomas Albert Cook, grandson of the founder of Cook's Travel. The building incorporates at the south a house begun perhaps in 1774 but externally remodelled with early 19th-century detail. The style is "Wrennaissance" or Edwardian Baroque, influenced by Sir Reginald Blomfield rather than Lutyens.

The east front comprises 17 bays and the south front 5 bays. The original house is refaced with mathematical tiles on the south and 8 south bays of the east front. The exterior is constructed of red brick with stone dressings, slate roofs and some copper roofs. The east front rises 2 storeys with attics.

The centrepiece is a central stone bowed section with giant-Corinthian order columns on plinths, decorated frieze and urns. The ground floor has 3 arched windows with keystones, glazing bars and fanlights. The first floor contains 3 straight-headed windows with architraves, keystones and swag aprons. Above is a 3-window attic with urns and full relief statues by Italian workmen. The rest of the east front is largely symmetrical about this centre, with 2 bays on either side. The design includes 3-bay canted three-sided bows and 2 bays to the south, with a returned 2-storey bow to the north. All windows feature stone architraves and sashes with glazing bars. The canted bays contain attics with 3 sashes with arched heads and stone sills, with stone balustrade. A wooden modillion cornice extends across the whole front. Three gabled dormers, a flagpole tower and off-ridge stacks (one to the central bow and 2 to the north canted bow) complete the composition.

A stone porte-cochere stands at the south with 2 open and 1 glazed arch, with columns and urns at the corners. The south front features a ground floor stone loggia with Ionic columns and balustrade between double returns to north and south, adorned with statues. The loggia continues at the west with a 5-bay conservatory with central pedimented door, pilasters, entablature and a bowed section glass roof. A kitchen court lies to the west.

To the north is a recessed 2-storey, 2-bay wing with ground floor open arched loggia of 8 bays, continued along the east front of the stable block. A central triumphal arch motif forms the entrance.

The rectangular stable court rises 1 and 2 storeys. A central arch with Tuscan Doric columns and outer bays with pilasters, entablature and cornice are crowned by two full relief kneeling dogs. An attic storey features a central oculus dovecote with swags and a pediment with supporting consoles, centred by an uncut cartouche with palm leaves. The hipped roof is fitted with 2 stacks and dormers. Blank arches face the stable wing to the north.

A rectangular court contains, on axis with the entrance, a 2-storey house with an open Tuscan Doric loggia to the ground floor, pediment with carved cartouche and swags, 2 ground-floor and 3 first-floor casements, and a central door. Brick and pantiled carriage sheds stand to the south, with stables to the north featuring a louvred ridge.

The interior is largely finished in late Caroline or William and Mary taste, with a top-lit stairwell featuring 3 ground-floor arches and landing with Corinthian columns and a carved solid dado balustrade. The east front contains a billiard room and dining room in similar style. The south front holds a neo-Jacobean library with a plastered barrel vault and formerly stone-mullioned windows. The drawing room follows late 18th-century Adam Chambers style, a scheme largely continued on the first floor.